Chester County Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Sexually Exploiting Numerous Minor Girls Online, Child Pornography Offenses

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Valentin Lubinski, 26, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release, a $3,600 special assessment, and a total of $28,000 in restitution and other assessments by United States District Judge Timothy J. Savage for the online sexual exploitation of numerous minor girls and child pornography offenses.

In February 2023, the defendant was charged by indictment with 18 counts of use of an interstate commerce facility to entice a minor, and attempt to entice a minor, to engage in sexual conduct, and 18 counts of manufacture, attempted manufacture, and willfully causing the manufacture of child pornography. He pleaded guilty to all 36 charges in December of last year.

As detailed in court documents and statements, throughout June of 2022, Lubinski, operating with the handle "Leo_32149," used a social media application to sexually exploit and extort 18 identified minor victims to self-produce sexually explicit images and videos of themselves and send them to him. The defendant's victims ranged in age from nine to 16 years old and lived primarily in rural areas throughout the United States.

Lubinski engaged in a common communication style with each victim. He quickly asked the victims how old they were and then lied about his own age, identifying himself as a male between the ages of 13 and 17 years old. He then asked for an image to see what the victim looked like, and upon receipt, responded with a compliment. Lubinski often sent the victims a photo of a teen boy he purported to be himself.

After the initial exchange, the defendant commonly told the victim that he had a question for her, and asked some variation of "R u freaky?" Regardless of the victim's response, he then asked her to make a deal with him - the victim would send him a picture of his choice, and, in exchange, Lubinski promised to send a combination of pictures and videos of himself to the victim.

Depending on the victim's level of resistance at this point, the defendant would explain that the photo he wanted "wasn't bad" and would then ask for a photo of the victim in her bra or underwear, followed by a topless photo. Upon receipt of these images, he took screenshots and asked the victim for more sexually explicit images, and sexually explicit photos with her face included.

Typically, the victim declined to send these images, at which point Lubinski began his sextortion of the victim, threatening to post her topless photo/bra photo/underwear photo on various social media platforms and often sending the screenshot back to her with a banner of text such as, "follow [the victim's social media handle] she sends nudes."

Lubinski continued to ask for more explicit and humiliating photos and videos of the girls, often employing a countdown, giving the victims "one minute" to pose in a certain way and send him a photo or video or he would post their other images. Many of the defendant's victims begged him to stop, as he extorted them.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia's Newtown Square Resident Agency and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kelly Harrell and Amanda McCool.